--you
probably saw all about it in the papers."

It was a remarkable sale, and the extraordinary prices realized are
probably fresh in most people's memories. I told Forrest I had seen
accounts of it, and he continued.

"Unfortunately I did not get the information until after the
representative in question had returned to Petersburg. There was nothing
left for me to do but to follow him there if I wanted to satisfy myself
as to whether the stones of which I had heard were really the ones
stolen from the mail. It was rather like a wild goose chase, but I went.
It was the day before I started that I saw the man who reminded me so
forcibly of your friend Mannering. It was a very fleeting glimpse of a
face which looked in at the door of a restaurant where I happened to be
dining, and I should not like to swear that it was he whom I saw. At the
time, I put my fancy down to one of those casual likenesses which
sometimes lead even keen observers to accost total strangers in the
streets as acquaintances. The likeness was, however, undeniable, in
spite of something strange about his appearance. However, I paid no
attention to the incident, and the next morning I was on my way to
Petersburg. There I found no difficulty in obtaining full particulars
from the dealer. I have no doubt but that he has purchased the stones
which were stolen from the Brighton mail. In size, weight, and quality
they answered to the description perfectly. I learned from him that the
man from whom he had bought the stones had been introduced to him by a
well-known Viennese jeweller. The price asked, though not very greatly
below market value, was low enough to tempt him to purchase. The man who
offered them suggested that payment should be made, not to himself, but
to his firm in Amsterdam. The transaction seemed in every way _bona
fide_, the explanation as to the low price being that the Amsterdam firm
was rather pressed for cash, and so compelled to realize some of its
stock, but was unable to do so in Amsterdam for fear of jeopardizing its
credit. The man who sold the stones gave the name of Josef Hoffman, and
the merchant produced his card which bore the name of Jacob Meyer and
Meyer, and an address in the De Jordaan, Amsterdam. He was described to
me as a tall, powerful, fresh-coloured, fair-haired German, of pleasant
manners and address. The Petersburg merchant's representative had given
him a draft on an Amsterdam bank and, on reaching the Russian